Recording and reproduction of mixed moving and still images

1. A reproducing apparatus comprising: a reproducing unit that reproduces image data from a recording medium where moving-image data are recorded; a storage having a capacity capable of storing the image data of a plurality of picture frames reproduced by said reproducing unit, said storage storing the still-image data of a plurality of different picture frames representing different images reproduced by said reproducing unit; a searching unit that searches the still image data in the image data reproduced by said reproducing unit and writes a plurality of picture frames of the searched still image data in said storage; and a memory control unit that selects one picture frame from the plurality of different picture frames represented by the still-image data searched by said searching unit and written in said storage, and reads the still-image data of the selected picture frame from said storage.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image data comprises encoded image data, and further comprising a decoding unit that decodes the still-image data read from said storage, wherein said storage also stores the still-image data decoded by said decoding unit.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said storage stores the encoded image data and the image data decoded by said decoding unit in different areas.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said searching means comprising a detection unit that detects the still-image data from among the image data reproduced by said reproducing unit, a feeder, arranged to feed the recording unit, and a feeding control that controls a feeding operation of said feeder in accordance with a result of detection by said detection unit.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a manual operation component, wherein said memory control reads still-image data stored in said storage in accordance with an operation of said manual operation component.

6. A reproducing apparatus, comprising: a reproducing unit adapted to reproduce image data of a first format from a recording medium, the image data comprising moving-image data and still image data; a first storage for storing the image data of the first format reproduced by said reproducing unit; a processor adapted to obtain image data of a second format by performing processing for the image data of the first format stored in said first storage; a second storage; and a mode setter, that sets a mode of said apparatus from among a plurality of modes, the plurality of modes comprising (1) an ordinary mode, in which said first storage stores the image data of the first format comprising the moving-image data and the still image data reproduced by said reproducing unit, and said second storage stores the image data of the second format including the moving image data and the still image data obtained by said processor, and (2) a still image searching mode, in which said reproducing unit searches the still image data in the image data of the first format reproduced from the recording medium and said first storage and said second storage store the still image data of the first format searched by said reproducing unit.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the image data of the first format comprises encoded image data, and wherein said processor comprises a decoder, for decoding the encoded image data.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the image data of the second format comprises image data decoded by said decoder.

9. An apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein said first storage and said second storage are configured as a single memory circuit.

10. A reproducing apparatus operable in at least a normal reproducing mode and a still-image reproducing mode, said reproducing apparatus comprising: reproducing means for reproducing encoded image data from a recording medium where moving-image data and still-image data are recorded, said reproducing means searching the still-image recorded in the recording medium in a still-image reproducing mode; storage means for storing the encoded image data reproduced by said reproducing means, said storage means having a first area and a second area; decoding means for decoding the encoded image data stored in said storage means and for outputting the decoded image data to said storage means, said storage means also storing the decoded image data; and control means for controlling a storage operation of said storage means in accordance with an operating mode of said apparatus, said control means controlling said storage means so as to store the encoded image data of the moving-image and the still-image in the first area and to store the decoded image data of the moving-image and the still-image in the second area in the normal reproducing mode, and to store the encoded image data of the still-image searched by said reproducing means in the first and second areas in the still-image reproducing mode.

11. An apparatus for reproducing encoded image data from a recording medium where still-image data for a plurality of different picture frames are recorded together with moving-image data, and for storing the reproduced encoded image data in a memory which has a capacity capable of storing the encoded image data of a plurality of picture frames, said apparatus having a still-image reproducing mode of automatically searching and reproducing the still-image data of the plurality of different picture frames indicating different images recorded on the recording medium, storing the searched still-image data of the plurality of different picture frames in the memory, and reading the still-image data of a selected one picture frame of the plurality of different picture frames represented by the still-image data stored in the memory from the memory.

12. An apparatus for receiving a data train of encoded image data where still-image data for a plurality of different picture frames are multiplexed with moving-image data, and for storing the encoded image data in a memory which has a capacity capable of storing the encoded image data of a plurality of picture frames, said apparatus having a still-image processing mode of automatically searching the still-image data of the plurality of different picture frames indicating different images from the received data train, storing the searched still-image data of the plurality of different picture frames in the memory, and reading the still-image data of a selected one picture frame of the plurality of different picture frames represented by the still-image data stored in the memory from the memory.

13. A reproducing apparatus, comprising: a reproducing unit that reproduces image data from a recording medium where moving-image data and still image data are recorded; a searching unit that searches the still image data in the image data recorded on the recording medium; a memory control unit that writes the still image data searched by said searching unit into a storage having a capacity capable of storing the still image data of a plurality of picture frames reproduced by said reproducing unit, said storage storing the searched image data of a plurality of different picture frames each representing a different still image; and a manual operation component that indicates changing of the still image to be read out from said storage, wherein said memory control unit selects one picture frame from the plurality of different picture frames represented by the still image data stored in said storage and reads the still image data of the selected one picture frame from said storage, said memory control means changing the one picture frame to other picture frame in the plurality of different picture frames represented by the image data stored in said storage in response to an instruction by said manual operation component.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises encoded image data, and said memory control unit writes the encoded image data reproduced by said reproducing unit into the storage.

15. An apparatus according to claim 14 , further comprising decoding unit that decodes the encoded image data of the selected picture frame read out from the storage.